Seaside Bomber Sentenced To Life

Rahimi used household goods to create a bomb packed into a pressure cooker and wired to a flip-phone detonator, which he placed on the busy NY street on September 17, 2016.

Rahimi said repeatedly during a 12-minute standing address to the court that he didn't harbor any hatred, but that his growing adherence to Islam caused him to face more harassment from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at airports after returning to the USA from travel to the Dominican Republic, Manchester and Pakistan.

"The explosion propelled a more-than-100-pound dumpster - which was introduced as an exhibit at trial - more than 120 feet".

The device four blocks north failed to explode.

Rahimi is also accused of planting a bomb near a race route in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, that detonated before the runners passed by, and of leaving six bombs in backpack near the Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station. "Rahimi had other bombs and likely other plans".

"You laugh with your lawyer". "You have no remorse". "It is not." Rahimi was convicted on October 16, 2017, following a two-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman, who also imposed today's sentence.

The verdict resulted in a mandatory life sentence.

"The Chelsea bombing was an attempt to bring our city to its knees".

Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan-born USA citizen, appears in court.

"(Another inmate) asked me how are we going to watch the news and I told him I don't need to watch the news because I am the news", Rahimi allegedly told a family member in a jailhouse phone call, while he was on trial.

Rahimi was awaiting sentencing last month in the Metropolitan Correctional Center when prosecutors claimed to have found evidence that he was trying to radicalize a fellow inmate with al-Qaida propaganda smuggled into the prison.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill praised the officers who responded to the Chelsea blast, as well as the authorities who tracked down and prosecuted Rahimi.

"Ahmed Kahn Rahimi placed two ticking bombs in a crowded Manhattan neighborhood on a warm Saturday night". "He then walked away. His clear intention was to take as many lives as possible".